Guelph’s unemployment rate dips after months of creeping up

Local jobs rate improving

Rob O'Flanagan/Mercury staff

Andrew Klomp and co-worker Matt Casler (yellow helmet) of McDonnell Carpentry raise a construction lift to the crown of the Cutten Block downtown in this October photo. Construction and other sectors contributed to a boost in the local and national job rates last month.

OTTAWA — A five-month slide in Guelph’s unemployment rate appears to have ended.

The latest jobs report from Statistics Canada found the city’s unemployment rate at 6.3 per cent at the end of December. That’s down from 6.4 per cent at the end of November and marks the first month the city’s jobs rate improved since the city had a figure of 4.5 per cent in July.

The dip in the Guelph unemployment rate saw the city return to being among the top 10 cities in Canada for best jobs rate. Target was among the companies hiring in the city last month. In Ontario, only Thunder Bay (5.4 per cent), and Hamilton (5.9 per cent) have lower unemployment rates than Guelph, according to the latest Stats Can report.

Regina and Edmonton boasted the best unemployment rate among Canadian cities at 4.3 per cent.

Guelph’s statistical story seems in line with a national trend for the month. The Canadian economy created 40,000 jobs in December — all of it in full-time work — and drove the unemployment rate to its lowest in four years, Statistics Canada said Friday.

Ontario accounted for about three-quarters of the Canadian jobs added in December and almost all of the other provinces either saw gains or stayed even. The only exception was Nova Scotia, which lost 5,000 jobs.

The federal agency’s national unemployment rate slipped by one-tenth of a percentage point to 7.1 per cent.

The results easily topped economist estimates for a gain of just 5,000 jobs nationally and an unemployment rate of 7.3 per cent.

The better than expected results follows what was a strong November, when Canada’s economy created 59,300 jobs. December saw 41,200 new full-time jobs added, while the number of part-time positions fell by 1,400.

Compared with a year earlier, Statistics Canada said there were 312,000 more jobs, all in full-time work.

The new jobs were added in a month of much hand-wringing over the so-called fiscal cliff in the United States and worries that if a budget deal was not reached, Canada’s largest trading partner could be tipped back into recession.

A last-minute deal this week prevented taxes from rising on the middle class and the poor. However, U.S. lawmakers still must wrangle over spending cuts and raising the country’s debt ceiling.

Ontario led the way with a gain of 33,000 jobs in December, following a similar increase in November. Most of the other provinces posted gains or were little changed for the month.

Manitoba posted an increase of 5,200, Saskatchewan added 4,000 and Newfoundland and Labrador increased by 2,700. Prince Edward Island added 1,300 jobs, while New Brunswick, Alberta, Quebec and British Columbia were little changed for the month.

The gains were made in the transportation and warehousing segment which added 22,000 jobs, while the construction industry gained 18,000 jobs. Professional, scientific and technical services lost 42,000, while public administration dropped 13,000.

Meanwhile, the industrial product price index was down 0.3 per cent in November compared with October, mainly as a result of lower petroleum and coal prices. The raw materials index fell 1.9 per cent on lower oil prices.